Salt House
Essex

June 18, 2011

The Salt House is a new-build 300sqm weekend house in Essex overlooking the Blackwater estuary to the North Sea. The building is a 3-dimensional transformation of the local oyster cottage vernacular into a crystalline form where the building is sculpted to become a bay window with maximum sea views and a central atrium open to the sky.

Window and balcony openings travel freely across the timber-clad facades expressing the movement of a building formed by sea winds. Interior spaces are wrapped by faceted wall and ceiling planes – extensions of the exterior building geometry.

The central double height atrium space is framed by a series of folded elements which form a staircase and balustrades. The ground floor of the building is conceived as a continuous landscape of terraced decking that unites a south-facing entrance courtyard, a central atrium space, and sunken living room that finally extends outward into the north facing garden and beach.